Backyard Cambridge is a podcast produced by Backyard Media - a passion project for us. It's a show dedicated to making it easy for residents of Cambridge, MA (where we are based) to understand the range of local political and policy issues their city is dealing with.

In Season 1, we broke down residents' choices in the November 2017 City Council election. On January 23, 2018, we launched Season 2. In every episode of this new season, we'll choose a new issue and break it down in a commute-long show. Check out www.backyardcambridge.com for more local news reporting about Cambridge.

Climate change is a global issue, but it’s also a local one. Cities around the world are developing policy responses to reduce their carbon footprint and prepare for the climate change effects we expect will happen in the coming decades. In this episode, we look at how Cambridge is leading the fight against climate change by being an example that other cities can follow.

In the second part of our series on affordable housing in Cambridge we ask, how do we build enough housing? Why is it so difficult to build in the city? And how do we balance density and the concerns of neighbors? We take a look at a couple of different developments in the process of being built, from Porter Square to Alewife to Kendall Square.

We ask Mayor McGovern about the City’s environmental initiatives and protected bike lanes, the delays on the Red Line, and more in our second episode of our “I’m the Mayor of Cambridge, Ask Me Anything” series.

Backyard Cambridge tackles arguably the biggest issue in Cambridge local politics today - affordable housing. We’re spending the next two episodes looking at the issue from all sides. Our goal is to figure out why it’s so difficult to find affordable housing in Cambridge. Has it always been like this? What government programs are there to help make housing more affordable? And what do local interest groups think we should do to make sure everyone has access to housing that’s affordable?

Have you ever wondered why there's no STOP sign at that pesky intersection outside your apartment? What about why rent in Cambridge is so high? Or, what's the deal with all that development in Kendall Square? Do you want to ask the Mayor? Wait a minute, who is the Mayor of Cambridge? Backyard Cambridge presents a new podcast series with the Mayor of Cambridge, Marc McGovern: 'I'm the Mayor. Ask me Anything."

Backyard Cambridge is back! In Season 2, we spend each episode taking a close looking an issue that's affecting the lives of the people living in Cambridge. First up is the topic of universal pre-Kindergarten. Specifically, what's holding back adoption of universal pre-K in the city? And why is it important that everyone, even Cantabrigians without children, care about this issue?

What happened on November 7th, 2017 in the Cambridge City Council election? In this episode of Backyard Cambridge, we look at who won, who lost, and what exactly went wrong with the vote tallying process. Then we look beyond this election to see the impact the results will have on affordable housing policies in the city.

A 19-year-old Harvard student, an owner of a local theater company, an Indian-American transplant from Mississippi. In Episode 5, we discuss the “upstarts” - six City Council candidates who got motivated to jump into local politics recently, most of them after the 2016 presidential election.

This episode Backyard Cambridge looks at what we've dubbed "the new generation" - seven candidates who are somewhat younger, but who have experience in policy or politics or advocacy. They're looking to take the next step in their political careers and make an impact, and Cambridge City Council is where they hope to do it.

Who are the six incumbents running to keep their seats on City Council? We profile each of them, from the one-term former community organizer all the way to the City Councillor who’s served for 27 years. We ask these candidates about their backgrounds, why they ran in the first place, what they’ve accomplished, and which issues they want to continue working on if re-elected this November.

In our second episode, we explain the structure of Cambridge’s local government, including City Council; the three categories we’ve created to think about the 26 different candidates; the pros and cons for having each type of candidate serve on City Council; and Cambridge’s unusual proportional representation voting system.

We're excited to share a bit of our new Backyard Media podcast, Backyard Cambridge! This series will follow the 2017 city council election in Cambridge, MA. We'll interview candidates, dig into the issues, and give you a firsthand look at the politics in your backyard.